{"id":12703,"date":"2021-01-25T16:55:27","date_gmt":"2021-01-25T16:55:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=154359"},"modified":"2021-01-25T16:55:27","modified_gmt":"2021-01-25T16:55:27","slug":"abolish-billionaires-oxfam-report-shows-combined-pandemic-wealth-of-richest-10-people-could-pay-to-vaccinate-entire-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/01\/25\/abolish-billionaires-oxfam-report-shows-combined-pandemic-wealth-of-richest-10-people-could-pay-to-vaccinate-entire-world\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Abolish Billionaires’: Oxfam Report Shows Combined Pandemic Wealth of Richest 10 People Could Pay to Vaccinate Entire World"},"content":{"rendered":"
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“Abolish billionaires.”<\/span><\/p>\n

That was the simple yet far-reaching message projected Saturday night onto the empty conference center in Davos, Switzerland where the World Economic Forum (WEF) usually meets during the annual summit of the world’s financial and governing elite.<\/span><\/p>\n

“We are facing the biggest single rise in inequality since the Great Depression while the 1% make massive profits and increase their wealth. We want a People’s Recovery Plan\u2014a set of radically different responses from governments that work for people and the planet.” \u2014Jenny Ricks, Fight Inequality Alliance<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>“Davos is a symbol of a failed era,” <\/span>said Jenny Ricks, global convenor for the Fight Inequality Alliance, which\u2014along with the local Swiss group Campax\u2014organized the isolated protest in the midst of the global coronavirus pandemic.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

While the traditional, lavish summit in Davos is being conducted largely online this year due to Covid-19 health restrictions, critics said the gathering of global elites is not where the world should look for just solutions.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The weekend action, said Ricks, “shows us where real change will come from\u2014people on the frontlines of inequality, not the 1% who benefit from the current system. It is time to abolish billionaires.”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“The pandemic has laid bare and supercharged the systemic inequalities we are fighting more blatantly than ever,” she added. “We are facing the biggest single rise in inequality since the Great Depression while the 1% make massive profits and increase their wealth. We want a People’s Recovery Plan\u2014a set of radically different responses from governments that work for people and the planet.”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The projection featured young activists from Kenya, the Philippines, Mexico, and the United Kingdom who lifted up the call for a “People’s Recovery Plan”\u2014a set of demands, the organizers explained, designed “to combat the spiraling inequality experienced during the pandemic and achieve the systemic change that people on the frontlines of inequality are demanding.”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The weekend demonstration was part of the kickoff for the global <\/span>#FightInequality<\/a> campaign that will run through<\/span> the end of January with coordinated actions in approximately 30 countries calling for a just and more equitable public health response and an economic program that gets to the root of pervasive injustice. Specifically, the groups behind the campaign and the “People’s Recovery Plan” are calling for:
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